Where is God? How do I find God each day? In a world where there is illness, death, terrorism, political animus, marital discord, challenges in parenting, and more, too, it is sometimes difficult to perceive God’s presence and to sense divine leading as we navigate life. And there are no easy answers. Our faith does provide a way to maneuver through these rocky roads of challenging questions and difficult experiences. We can trust in God’s love even though we don’t always understand nor find satisfactory answers to our questions. Look around for the many evidences of it not allowing the din and glare of today’s traumas and challenges to deafen and blind us to signs of God’s presence and love.

Celtic spirituality offers some poignant insights. The Northumberland Community, a global Celtic Community based in northern England, writes:

The greatest discovery was that the heart of Celtic spirituality was simply living the life, following the Way, travelling the journey in the everyday ordinariness of life –the pain and the pleasure, the heartaches and the hopes, the disappointment and the dreams…All of our lives is a search for God so that everything we are and everything we do is an offering of worship to God. Spirituality is the whole of our lives because it is not about doing but about being.

What peace and trust may be ours if, through all of “the pain and the pleasure, the heartaches and the hopes, the disappointments and the dreams,” we could remember that “all of our lives is a search for God.” Each moment of each day, each place where we are, provide opportunities to really look for evidences of God and God’s love in the beauty of creation, the laughter or cry of a child, the gentle hand that touches us when we are frightened, the inexplicable peace and calm that we feel after a time of prayer, and … what other evidences do you perceive? Embrace the Celt’s sacramental view of life that values the ordinariness of life and that realizes that nothing is outside of God’s love and grace.

Will this answer our questions or eliminate our concerns, fears, and traumas? Certainly not. It can serve to give us a new perspective from which to ask the hard questions and experience life’s needs and challenges: one of trust and hope. May we pray with the Celts:

Thanks to Thee, O God, that I have risen to-day.
To the rising of this life itself;
May it be to Thine own glory, O God of every gift.
And to the glory of my soul likewise.
O great God, aid Thou my soul
With the aiding of Thine own mercy ;
Even as I clothe my body with wool.
Cover Thou my soul with the shadow of Thy wing.
Help me to avoid every sin.
And the source of every sin to forsake;
And as the mist scatters on the crest of the hills.
May each ill haze clear from my soul, O God. Amen.
(Camina Gadelica, anthology of Celtic oral tradition)

For more information and to further explore Celtic Prayer:
• Come to Westminster’s Evening Prayer, led by Dave Fetterman, which meets the 2nd Thursday of every month from 7:00-7:30 p.m. in Memorial Parlor.
• Explore the website of the Northumbria Community at http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/